Yale

San Diego State has some fine athletes. Several can run. Many can jump. A couple are defensive whizzes. But being that you need to make baskets to win a basket ball game, the Aztecs fell short again Thursday night. This time, SDSU was eclipsed by Yale, 69-62, before 2,110 at the San Diego Sports Arena. The atmosphere, from the play on the court to the empty seats in the stands, was about like the aftermath of a New Year's Eve party.

LAS VEGAS - O.J. Simpson's former defense attorney, Yale Galanter, will take the stand Friday morning to respond to claims that he was a greedy, self-serving lawyer who so failed his celebrity client that Simpson deserves a new trial on kidnapping and robbery charges. Simpson's lawyers have contended in a Clark County courtroom this week that the 65-year-old disgraced former football star's 2008 convictions should be set aside. He is serving from 9 to 33 years in prison and will not be eligible for parole until he is 70.   Central to the case is what role Galanter played in Simpson's effort to barnstorm a low-rent hotel room with five other men in 2007 to retrieve mementos and pictures that Simpson said belonged to him. One of the men with Simpson pulled a gun during the confrontation with two memorabilia dealers, a move that help squeeze the athlete known as “The Juice.”  Simpson has testified that Galanter told him he was within his rights to take back his property as long as there was no violence and he didn't trespass.

A. Bartlett Giamatti, retiring Yale president and Renaissance scholar, was named president of the National League here Tuesday. Asked if Dante, the Italian classic writer, would approve his appointment, the 48-year-old educator replied that, yes, Dante knew about paradise. Giamatti, 48, an avid Boston Red Sox fan, will trade the Ivy League for the National League when he takes over from president Charles (Chub) Feeney at the winter baseball meetings on Dec. 11.

Online college course provider Coursera announced Wednesday that Yale University has joined the growing network of campuses that offer free classes through the organization. Mountain View, Calif.-based Coursera said that Yale will offer four courses initially -- Roman architecture, financial markets, moralities of everyday life and constitutional law -- bringing the total number of universities that offer courses through the group to 70. Millions worldwide take these kinds of free online courses through several organizations, most of which offer the courses without college credit.

A Yale University curator has found a second copy of a mysterious love poem said to have been written by William Shakespeare, casting new doubts on whether the Bard of Avon actually wrote the verse, it was reported Wednesday. Stephen Parks, a curator for Yale's rare book library, told the New York Times that he spotted the unsigned poem in a collection of 16th-Century verse he bought for the university in 1972.

The modern conservative movement began 60 years ago with the publication of a book by a 26-year-old first-time author. Reflecting on that work teaches us something important about the nature and trajectory of modern conservatism, about the energy that propelled the movement and about serious problems with the movement today. The book was "God and Man at Yale. " The author was William F. Buckley Jr. GAMAY (as conservatives often call this iconic work) was an attack on the young author's alma mater.

FO Madison, Wis., 1987. From COMMON GROUND, text and photographs by Gregory Coniff (Yale: $35).

Re "Sports Agent Steinberg's Firm Awarded $45 Million," Nov. 16: Now, let me get this straight: Leigh Steinberg excuses his alcoholic escapades by noting that George W. had alcohol problems (especially while he was a legacy at Yale), and now he's president. And this is supposed to make me feel better about him and this country? God help us all. Ron Halpern Siros Laguna Niguel

In "Does Derrida Taste Great, Or Is He Less Filling?" (The Book Review, July 12), you identify J. Hillis Miller as "The noted Yale professor of literature." In July, 1986, Miller left Yale to become Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. Jacques Derrida is also a part-time UC Irvine faculty member. He is here one quarter per year. COLLEEN BENTLEY-ADLER Public Information Representative UC Irvine

C.J. Thompkins from Campbell Hall in North Hollywood tied the Columbia University record for three-point baskets made in a game, sinking seven Friday night in a victory over Yale. He then made seven more Saturday in a victory over Brown. Thompkins, a junior guard, scored a career-high 27 points against Yale and 25 against Brown.

Andrew Miller scored 6 minutes 59 seconds into overtime to lift Yale to a 3-2 victory over Massachusetts Lowell in the NCAA men's hockey semifinals at Pittsburgh. The senior captain raced around a pair of River Hawks defenders, then slipped a backhand shot between the legs of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. The Bulldogs (21-12-3) will play rival Quinnipiac in the final Saturday. Yale's Jeff Malcolm made 16 saves but didn't even see a shot in overtime as the Bulldogs buzzed Hellebuyck before Miller broke through.

The Windham-Campbell Prizes, a new literary award from Yale University, has announced its inaugural roster of winners. Among the nine recipients are three playwrights -- Naomi Wallace, Stephen Adly Guirgis and Tarell Alvin McCraney. Each winner receives a monetary award of $150,000. The honors will be handed out at a ceremony scheduled for Sept. 10. The prize is administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale. It is named after Donald Windham, who along with his partner, Sandy M. Campbell, donated money for the creation of the prize.

On behalf of the animal rights group PETA, an Irvine woman is asking the city to erect a memorial at the street corner where 1,600 pounds of fish died this month when a container truck crashed into two other vehicles. Dina Kourda, a volunteer with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, wrote to the Irvine Public Works Department to request that a sign be placed at Walnut and Yale avenues to honor the lives of the fish - believed to be saltwater bass - lost in the accident. The fish had been stored in large tanks that cracked open as a result of the Oct. 11 accident.

For the first time since the United States entered a deep recession five years ago, 70% of Americans now say they believe global warming is a reality, according to researchers. In a report released Thursday by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, authors wrote that America's concern about global warming is now at its highest level since 2008, and that 58% of Americans expressed worries about it. “Historically Americans have viewed climate change as a distant problem --  distant in time and distant in space -- and perceived that it wasn't something that involved them,” said environmental scientist and lead author Anthony Leiserowitz.

News briefs can be cruel. Not because of what they say, but because of what they don't. The Boston Globe ran an item Saturday headlined “ Wayland woman dies in Dennis car crash .”  It was breaking news, but not unusual. The Globe's metro desk regularly runs tragedies in brief: struck pedestrian, fatal motorcycle accident. This one told of Marina Keegan, 22, who died when the car she was riding in drifted off the road, hit a guardrail, veered back over the road and rolled over at least twice.

The modern conservative movement began 60 years ago with the publication of a book by a 26-year-old first-time author. Reflecting on that work teaches us something important about the nature and trajectory of modern conservatism, about the energy that propelled the movement and about serious problems with the movement today. The book was "God and Man at Yale. " The author was William F. Buckley Jr. GAMAY (as conservatives often call this iconic work) was an attack on the young author's alma mater.

Thank you for your hysterically funny Topic A. It is without doubt the funniest put-down of Bush that I have yet enjoyed! I intend to Xerox copies of the article and mail it to family members, especially those who went to Yale. LUCIA LUPT North Hollywood

Would Mike Downey be interested in trading his space shuttle cap for a 1979 Yale baseball cap? Or a Cal 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway cap? Possibly a Washington Federals cap? BENJAMIN CHULAY Altadena

Apple Inc. now has to get down to the business of surviving its founder. It's something that Apple - and Steve Jobs himself - had been painstakingly planning for years. Deep inside its sprawling Cupertino, Calif., campus, one of the world's most successful and secretive companies has had a team of experts hard at work on a closely guarded project. PHOTOS: The life of Steve Jobs But it isn't a cool new gadget. It's an executive training program called Apple University that Jobs considered vital to the company's future: Teaching Apple executives to think like him. "Steve was looking to his legacy.